


Little Miss Perfect - Half-J songfic

by panicky_pancakes



Category: Newsies - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, OC Ships, OCs - Freeform, Songfic, little miss perfect songfic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:41:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26655322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panicky_pancakes/pseuds/panicky_pancakes
Summary: JJ Hearst is one of the most popular girls in school. She makes straight A's, she's head of the student council. But what happens when her ex-best friend Half-Hitch starts to come back into her life? Little Miss Perfect is supposed to be straight, right?
Relationships: OCs - Relationship
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	1. 1

**Author's Note:**

> So Half-Hitch is my OC, and JJ belongs to @theworldisyaerster1! Enjoy! These are only the first few verses, I'll add the next chapter probably tomorrow.

_Straight A’s, straightforward._

As JJ got ready that morning, she repeated what she always told herself the morning before a test. It was what she needed – straight A’s, all the way to college.

In the shiny, recently cleaned mirror, a short girl stared back at her, blonde bone-straight hair in a high ponytail on top of her head. Dark circles had been there when she’d woken up, but with her carefully practiced makeup skills, they were all but history.

“JJ!” her father was calling her from downstairs. “Let’s get going, please! You want to be on time for student council, right?”

“Yeah, I’m coming!” she shouted back, grabbing her bag and shutting off the lights.

“Hey, JJ!” JJ’s friend Evie caught up to her on her way into school. “How come I didn’t see you at Spot’s party on Friday?”

“I was there,” JJ said, hitting send on a text to another friend. “I left before shit got crazy, though.”

“Aw, why, it was so fun!” Evie whined. “You should have stayed!”

“Thanks, but I don’t black out at parties,” JJ sighed while holding the door open for her. Usually, one would expect the girl with the cane to have the door held open for her, but JJ had always refused to take help from other people. It was illogical, she knew, but she only ever played the _girl with a cane_ card when she really needed to.

“Oh, _right_.” Evie rolled her eyes. “You’re JJ Hearst! You get _straight A’s_ in every class!” She raised her voice. “AND YOUR FAVOURITE ARTIST IS PAUL MCCARTNEY—”

“—Evie!” JJ interrupted, jokingly shoving her friend. “That’s my biggest secret!” They had reached their lockers now, and JJ was rifling through hers to find her English binder.

“Hi, JJ,” Evie’s boyfriend greeted, putting an arm around his girlfriend.

“What’s up, Aidan?”

“Not too much. How are you?”

“Well…”

 _My father got rich when I was two,_ she wanted to answer, _my parents spoiled me rotten. But nobody cares enough to ask me how I’m_ really _doing because all they see is Little Miss Perfect_. _What’d I do to gain that title? Nothing._

“Fine.”

People were starting to come into the school in droves, each student passing by JJ’s locker as they went. Some way, somehow, JJ’s eyes fixed themselves on a girl she hadn’t spoken to in three years. Mila “Half-Hitch” Petrov, her former best friend. Former not because of a fight, but because of JJ’s increasing popularity in eighth grade, and Half-Hitch’s lack thereof.

And good _God_ was she gorgeous. JJ was obsessed with her style, something that she’d never quite been able to place. It hadn’t really changed from eighth grade, and the best way she could explain it was if eighties had a baby with punk. Add that to the short, wavy red-brown hair and her tall, lithe runner’s form? JJ’s heart fluttered like a caged bird against her ribcage.

All it would take was a little _“Hey, Hitch, how’re things? Want to get a coffee?_ ” to get it going again, but JJ couldn’t. Whatever it was that she felt when she looked at Half-Hitch wasn’t what someone like _her_ was supposed to feel, so she didn’t dare utter a word.

Saying something to the pretty girl walking by would be _absurd_ for a person like JJ. For Little Miss Perfect.


	2. Lose Control

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not updating sooner! Also - I just found out about the Little Miss Perfect Musical and I am ECSTATIC!!!

_No, no, no, not again,_ JJ thought as she picked at her food and tried to keep from craning her neck to see across the cafeteria. _Can’t risk it_ , her mind screamed. Keep the straight A’s, stay straightforward.

Suddenly, her phone buzzed, and she stopped eating to pull it out of her pocket. A text from an unknown number was waiting for her on the notifications screen. Opening it, JJ could see what it said.

_Hey_

Another text came in soon after it.

_It’s hitch by the way, in case you didn’t save my number._

Ouch. JJ felt a stab of guilt hit her gut as she stared at the text. She _hadn’t_ saved Half-Hitch’s number. How was it that the same day JJ had been staring at Half-Hitch, her former best friend tried to talk to her for the first time since eighth grade? And now Half-Hitch was staring at her across the cafeteria, clearly waiting for her to respond.

She wanted to off her phone. She wanted to be the straight girl. She wanted to be Little Miss Perfect. But something made her open the keyboard and start to type a reply.

  1. _How are you?_



The three dots jumped and bubbled on the screen in front of her as she anticipated Half-Hitch’s reply.

_Cut the bullshit._

JJ frowned at Half-Hitch across the room. The other girl shrugged, pointed at her phone as if to say ‘ _I’m not done talking_ ’, and went back to typing.

_I know you’re too popular to hang out w me but I miss u_

JJ was surprised.

In eighth grade, JJ’s secret had gotten out. Her father, William Hearst, had been rich for most of her life, but the entire school had found out when she was thirteen. Within a week, her popularity had skyrocketed, leaving her best friend Half-Hitch in the dust. Half-Hitch, a first-generation American with a noticeable Russian accent, had often been looked down on by the girls higher than her in that iconic middle school hierarchy.

Stupidly, back then, JJ had told her that they couldn’t be friends anymore. She’d also told her friends a few things Hitch had asked her to keep private.

 _I miss u too_ , JJ replied truthfully. _Want to come over Friday nite?_

_Yeah_

And that was it. JJ went back to gossiping with her friends, and Half-Hitch went back to talking to hers. Nobody else was aware that worlds had just collided. And under JJ’s makeup, a closeted gay girl was blushing more than she ever had.

“Hi.” Half-Hitch stood at JJ’s door, a worn backpack covered in pins and buttons slung over her shoulder.

“Hey, Hitch, come on in. My folks are out, so it’s just us.”

Inside, the two girls went up to JJ’s room, probably the most modest room in the house. Her bed, neatly made, was a double size, her walls were the same light pink they had been fifteen years ago, and fairy lights still draped over the windowsill, their batteries replaced time after time.

“It’s…exactly the same,” Half-Hitch said quietly, looking around. She seemed mildly surprised. “Everything is the same.”

Later, once the sun had left the sky and been replaced with a blue hue which was darkening by the hour, Half-Hitch and JJ ordered Chinese takeout and turned on a movie. JJ wasn’t paying attention to the movie. She was paying attention to the way Half-Hitch sat on the sofa, legs crossed and her chin resting on her hands. Her green eyes were fixed intently on the movie, rimmed by her dark, immaculate purple makeup, and every once in a while they would flick towards JJ.

After a while, Half-Hitch asked, “can I… your hair, I mean, can I…”

JJ snapped out of her stupor to see Half-Hitch trying to find the word in English. She remembered back when they were kids she’d slip between English and Russian all the time, so much so that JJ tried to learn Russian when she was ten. It hadn’t gone well.

“The word in Russian is _tes’ma_. I think… braid?”

“Oh, yeah, braid.”

“Yes!” Half-Hitch snapped her fingers. “Russian braids are so fun and since I have short hair I don’t get to do it.”

“Uh, sure.” JJ shifted herself so her long blonde hair was facing Half-Hitch and they could both continue watching the movie.

They sat in silence for a while, Half-Hitch’s thin, nimble fingers weaving through her hair.

“Why don’t you go to parties?” Half-Hitch asked her after a while. JJ rolled her eyes, causing her friend to stop her from moving her head in order to continue braiding.

“I _do_ ,” JJ sighed, tired of explaining. “I just leave early. I’ve never blacked out once.”

“ _You_?” Hitch said incredulously, stopping. “You don’t drink?”

“One drink. Never any more,” JJ confirmed with a small smile. “Can’t risk it.”

“Never blacked out once,” Half-Hitch repeated thoughtfully. “You don’t know what it feels like then? Me neither.”

This confused JJ. She had thought that the group Half-Hitch ran with had parties that were even worse than those of JJ’s group. But, thinking again, the ‘artsy alternative’ group probably didn’t care as much about parties or booze as one would think from looking at them.

“I think I know what it feels like anyway,” JJ mused, the movie a quiet hum in the background. “You know?”

“I do.” Half-Hitch stopped working. “Your hair’s done.”

Pulling out her phone and clicking into her camera, JJ looked at the intricate braids around her head. The twist curled around the side of her head and trailed down over her shoulder. It would have looked good if pieces of JJ’s shorter bits of hair (pieces that _wouldn’t_ grow no matter what she did) weren’t sticking out of the braid like spines on a lizard.

“Oh…”

“Sorry,” Half-Hitch apologized, pulling out the elastics in JJ’s hair and breaking the braid. JJ’s hair sprang out into waves and curls after being in tight braids for a few hours.

“Ah, your hair is like little pom-pom,” Hitch drawled in an over-exaggerated version of her own accent, making JJ snort. They both dissolved into laughter, giggles echoing through JJ’s empty house.

JJ couldn’t take it anymore. She stopped laughing and took Half-Hitch’s hand. They locked eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> JJ is, once again, @theworldisyaerster1's OC on Tumblr! Half-Hitch is mine and you can find me @panicky-pancakes :)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! This'll probably become a warm-up writing thing for me, so I'll try to keep it going! Make sure to check out my other works and find me on Tumblr @panicky-pancakes.


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